The golden rule for motorists this week was: Don’t speed in school zones as the youngsters returned to school from their summer vacation.

By the time the shortened school day was over, however, 96 motorists had not heeded that golden rule and found a speeding ticket in their hands, said Kelowna RCMP Const. Steve Holmes.

Members of the Central Okanagan Traffic Services were busy conducting speed enforcement at eight Kelowna and area schools yesterday morning during the half day return to school.

In addition to the speeding tickets, police handed out 11 written warnings, 11 seat belt violation tickets and four tickets for various other Motor Vehicle Act violations.

Officers were regularly seeing speeds over 50 km/h in the posted 30 km/h zones, and some drivers were clocked at over 60 km/h.

Sgt. Brad Swecera, non-commissioned officer in charge of the Kelowna RCMP’s Traffic Services, said the first day of the back to school safe driving campaign for police traffic services was to ensure that students are safe from inattentive drivers.

Swecera noted that parents can also become task oriented and become rushed when taking their children to school.

Parents, and all motorists for that matter, need to plan ahead so they can take the time to slow down when driving in the school zones, Swecera urged.

Now is also the time to pay attention to the many school buses that are operating in the school district, he said.

The Motor Vehicle Act states that all motor vehicle traffic, going in either direction, must come to a complete stop when a school bus stops and engages it’s red flashing lights and stop sign.

The traffic can only continue once the red lights have stopped flashing and the stop sign has been retracted.

Failure to stop can result in a Motor Vehicle Act violation that carries a $167 fine and three points against your driver’s licence.

Police gave out more than 100 tickets for this offence last year which accounted for only a fraction of the number of offences witnessed by school bus drivers and the public.